Hammed Shahidian

Hammed Shahidian (1959-2005) was an Iranian scholar, intellectual, and a close friend of Dr. Mojab. His extensive scholarship covered critical themes related to social movements, political activism, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, exile, immigration, and diaspora. As a leftist feminist activist and researcher, much of his work is anchored in a sociological perspective and discusses of the struggles of secular and leftist Iranian women and refugees.

Shahidian served as an Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He was an Honorary Research Fellow at Glasgow University (2000-2001), a research affiliate at the Centre of the Study of Socialist Theory and Movements, and a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of British Columbia (2004). Shahidian was also a founding editor of the Iran Bulletin – Middle East Forum, a member of the editorial board for Sexualities at the University of Essex, and an editor for Critique: Journal for Critical Studies of Iran and the Middle East at Hamline University. From 1988 to 1992, he also contributed to the editorial board of Porssa: A Persian Journal of Theoretical Research. Additionally, he authored several important books, including Women in Iran: Gender Politics in the Islamic Republic (2002) and Women in Iran: Emerging Voices in the Women’s Movement (2002). Shahidian also translated various books from English to Persian which include After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives by Edward Said, Night by Elie Weisel and Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi.

Added by Nourane Abdelshafy, April 2025